Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The new agreement negotiated between Azerbaijan and European Union, aiming to replace the one issued in 1996, will open new page in the cooperation of Baku with European continent.

The new agreement must replace the partnership and cooperation agreement signed in 1996 and must take into account the common goals and challenges facing the EU and Azerbaijan today.

Czech Ambassador to Azerbaijan Vitezslav Pivonka also believes that negotiations on a strategic partnership agreement currently underway between Azerbaijan and the EU will open the way for broader cooperation with the Czech Republic, as well.

Czech Republic and Azerbaijan are strategic partners since 2015 following the Czech President Milos Zeman’s visit to Azerbaijan. The current state of relationships provides an adequate framework and atmosphere for further developing and intensifying of bilateral cooperation.

The bilateral relations are not burdened with any substantial problems and both countries are similar to each other in many respects and it is not just about the size of population or territory

The two countries are successfully developing a database of documents defining the areas of cooperation between the two. Annual intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation also plays a big role in this regard.

Today, Azerbaijan significantly increases the energy security of the Czech Republic and the national oil provides about a quarter of the annual consumption of the Czech Republic, therefore Azerbaijan, which has made a significant contribution to the diversification of Czech energy resources, has become an important strategic partner of this European country.

Czech companies are interested in modernizing the Baku oil refinery, which provides Georgia, Turkey, post-Soviet and European countries with its products, according to the ambassador.

“We know that a project is underway to modernize the Baku Oil Refinery named after Heydar Aliyev. Czech companies have tremendous experience in this regard. Even during the Soviet era, Czech companies participated in the construction of refineries throughout the USSR and in many countries of the Middle East, including the Baku Refinery,” said Pivonka told Trend.

The plant modernization project is interesting for Czech companies that can participate in this project. The Baku oil refinery named after Heydar Aliyev, owned by the Azerbaijani state company SOCAR, exported 27.2 percent of the production in 2016.

The Czech diplomat also wants to speed up the work on signing a memorandum of understanding in the energy sphere and work on the project has been going on for a long time.

"Unfortunately, the work on it has been carried out since the beginning of the change of the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, and then the premature passing away of Azerbaijan’s Energy minister Natig Aliyev." We very much hope that despite these unfortunate events the work on the memorandum will be brought to a successful conclusion," said the ambassador.

Pivonka also said that the Czech Republic is going to offer Azerbaijan interesting projects of economic cooperation.

“In this context, we see very big potential for the further development of trade relations between the Czech Republic and Azerbaijan. For example, we all know well that the agriculture was approved by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev as one of the priority sectors for the development of the Azerbaijani economy. The Czech Republic is able to offer very interesting cooperation projects in this regard,” said the ambassador.

According to Pivonka, the Czech Republic is one of the leading states where agriculture, particularly, livestock, fish farming, grain growing and others, are developed.

Czech entrepreneurs play active role in Azerbaijan’s economy investing $1.3 billion so far. Czech companies as contractors are involved in various projects in Azerbaijan, totaling $16 billion.

Czech entrepreneurs have work experience in Azerbaijan, and they are interested in its successful continuation, just as the Azerbaijani entrepreneurs are interested in cooperation with the Czech Republic, said the diplomat.

Czech Republic, a reliable partner for Azerbaijan in several fields, so this year the trade turnover between the countries has grown by one third.

Currently, the two countries, who enjoyed $201.011 million of trade turnover in January-June 2017, intend to focus on non-oil sector. The Czech Republic ranks the 12th in the list of main importers of Azerbaijani goods.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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